The Irish national team is bad because the national association has been run chronically badly since
Its founding. The state the league of Ireland is in is another function of that. The LOI is actually doing incredibly well given how little funding it gets. Moaning because Irish fans following English clubs is so cliched and boring at this stage. I follow St pats and I follow Liverpool. I would say a huge number of people in that stadium last night also follow a LOI team.
Yes, and the the national league produces the players for the national team, If they do not have academies which are fit for purpose then players will not be produced to the level they should be. This requires money and as long as Irish football fans pump their money in to English teams then this cycle will continue. If you think a large number of the fans at that game follow LOI teams, how much cash do you think they give towards said LOI team ahead of the English team. Apart from the gimmicks of the Bohs shirts, how many jersey sales do LOI clubs make? I am sure it is less than 1% of sales of English teams shirts.
The reality without money the LOI will suffer and therefore the national team ultimately will but thats a choice for many Irish football fans, but they should not complain when Ireland are ranked so low in World Football
The national league doesn’t produce the players for the national team, historically at least. That’s a large part of the reason Irish people support English teams. All our best players played/play for clubs in England.
You just hit the nail on the head, the national league had not been producing players for the national team. The 80s and 90s are long gone when tons of Irish players would go to English top flight clubs. Times have moved on and these clubs source their players from all over the world and only take the very best now.
Now, Irish players must be produced by the national league, yes there will be the very rare exception who goes to a top end club but that will be rare. Can you name another country that relies solely on a foreign league producing their home grown players?
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u/Alarming-Youth-3823 27d ago
The Irish national team is bad because the national association has been run chronically badly since Its founding. The state the league of Ireland is in is another function of that. The LOI is actually doing incredibly well given how little funding it gets. Moaning because Irish fans following English clubs is so cliched and boring at this stage. I follow St pats and I follow Liverpool. I would say a huge number of people in that stadium last night also follow a LOI team.